Did Muhammad Ali take it too far.."FIGHTERS TAKING IT TOO FAR"

Hopkins supposedly said that to Lou Dibella, not Jermaine.

 

I remember watching in a documentary that the name "Clay" wasn't really a slave name. I'll have to watch it again to clarify exactly what was said as I can't remember the exact details.

I know that Ali's father was named in honor of an abolitionist.

 

look i heard what hopkins said about the cancer society thing ...if people blew that up like they did and they blew up what he said about a white guy never beating him ..then we for damn sure would have clearly remembered at one point or another bernard hopkins saying an opponet would wish they had killed themselves like their brother who just did so ...we woulda heard

 

Ironic, since he drank quite a lot.

 

i would say so too ..almost like having that co worker who out does you at every turn except the one time where you out do them ..and they still get credit because they didn't totally **** up the entire project...

 

The comment Hopkins is made is true, I wouldn't make something like that up.

 

Many of us did hear it, though it was through Larry Merchant, and not about a fighter, but about former manager/courtroom opponent Lou DiBella.

The comment was supposedly something like "Lou will commit suicide after I beat Taylor. Lou, you know about suicide, don't you?".

 

Yeah. Cassius Clay Sr. was a violent, abusive drinker.

Ali may have been more financially well off than many fighters (like Frazier), but his life wasn't exactly easy either. The cops had to come to his house numerous times because of Clay Sr's drinking and abuse. He once he cut Muhammad's leg during a drunken rage.

 

Muhammad Ali was an *******. I am Ross Wigley, and I approve of this statement.

 

There is nothing positive or redeeming in one black person calling another black person a "Gorilla" or an "Uncle Tom," especially considering the state of politics and human rights in the late 1960's and early 1970's. At the same time, Frazier's kids were constant victims of verbal and physical abuse at school by the supporters of Ali's big mouth propoganda, which was worse than wrong.

Ali's verbal tactics went well beyond the dignities of promoting a respectable sporting event. For his sake, it was probably good for him to use those cheap tactics because he almost had Joe angrilly overloading with his left-hook, trying to knock him out.

Frazier still won the FOTC hands down, but had Ali not personalized this fight, Frazier in all business mode probably knocks him out more methodically. Frazier's anger saved Ali from a more calculated beat-down that night.

 

"Muhammad Ali" is not an African name, it's an Arab name. Ironic really, because the Arabs took far more black slaves than the whites that he was named after.

 

It is a Muslim name, a religion that has long had an association in Africa, northern Africa in particular. Arabs are not always Muslim, but are followers of many religions.
Portuguese were in fact the main drivers of the slave trade and took the majority of African Slaves and repatriated them to South America

 

dumbass:-(

 

No, he does actually have a point. The Arabs were very active as slave traders in Africa. Africans were held as slaves in the Middle East into the 20th century, so Muhammed Ali could in a way be seen as slave name when used by a descendant of Africans.

 

Well, yes. But Ali, whether or not it was fair, brought this on himself. He was at least on some level prepared for it. I don't believe Frazier ever asked to be labeled what Ali labeled him.

I agree he had every right to choose whaever religion he saw fit, and not go to war. That was his choice.
To be honest, I don't think Floyd's statements were ever intended to personally insult Ali. I believe it to be more a misplaced sense of patriotism than anything.

My feelings on the matter is that initially at least, Ali was probably just clowning and not being totally serious. But when Frazier reacted so badly to what Ali said, I think it tickled Ali's mean streak and he enjoyed twisting the knife in.
He did it for years.

What Bokaj said earlier is actually very interesting. I've never thought about it like that, but it does make sense that perhaps the real bitterness came later, once Ali was deified by the media and general public, and Joe was only really remembered by those who follow the sport.

They brought out a video series a few years ago called D'Agostini's Boxing, where every week they concentrated on a different fighter with a video of that fighter's most important fight, as well as a small magazine (for want of a better term) detailing that fighter's career.
Guess which video of Frazier's fight they showed?
You'd think his win over Ali, or perhaps Buster Mathis, correct?
Nope.
It was the Thrilla in Manilla. atsch

Bokaj is definitely onto something here. I think this sort of shabby treatment of Joe is probably what's turned him so bitter, not so much Ali's words.

In any event, it's a black mark against Ali's saintly image (the things he said to Joe) but I don't think he should be forever damned for it either.